Thinking that it can’t get worse is the first problem, because if you’re Tottenham this season, it very well can. For a day, they were able to leave behind the relegation race in the Premier League for an entire six minutes before an error from goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky gave Atletico Madrid a 1-0 lead that they turned into three goals, playing Spurs off the park at the Metropolitano. It was something that Spurs never recovered from losing the match 5-2. The result is bigger than just the goals; it shows that even their course correction isn’t working.
Manager Igor Tudor responded to going behind early by subbing his young keeper after only 17 minutes in what was his Champions League debut, before Tottenham conceded yet another goal when Guglielmo Vicario entered the fray. It’s certainly a decision for Tudor, as while it wasn’t a good start, these are the kinds of subs that keepers struggle to come back from, with the mental side of the game being so important.
“These are not simple mistakes,” CBS Sports’ Peter Schmeichel, a goalkeeping legend for Man United, said on the post-game show.
“That’s going to have ramifications for the rest of his career. This will be a moment everybody in football will remember when they hear his name … You’ve got to stick with him, and at least stick until halftime. What he’s done there, for me, he’s absolutely killed his career.”
Vicario earned his time on the bench, struggling in net himself to create uncertainty around the position. These are areas that Tudor was supposed to improve, but that has been anything but the case.
Appointed as the manager until the end of the season on February 14 to replace Thomas Frank, Tudor’s stint has been nothing short of a disaster, with Tottenham conceding nine goals and only scoring three while losing all three league matches in Premier League play, seeing Spurs now sit only one point out of the relegation zone in 16th place.
For most of the season under Thomas Frank, the stench of Premier League form hadn’t made it to Champions League with the team rising to fourth in the table during the league phase but they could only run away from reality for so long as Tudor could now run the risk of having the fewest number of Premier League games managed ever by an appointed manager as Tottenham are on track to lose the fourth consecutive match since his appointment.
He’s a manager who is known for stabilizing chaotic situations, but even he hasn’t been able to get something out of a Tottenham side that almost seems to have submitted to their fate of being a shock team to drop to the Champions League. Two of Kinsky’s goals conceded in the first half were his own errors that led to goals, but from their center backs being sent off in two of their last three matches, individual errors are a large part of what got them here and what could sink the team in the long run.
Of course, the blame isn’t solely there as the team went into the season with an injured James Maddison, Dejan Kulusevski, and failed to properly replace Son Heung-min following his move to Los Angeles FC, causing three of the top four chance creators from last season to be unavailable, and it has shown in a turgid attack.
But when a manager makes a change, trying to draw a spark, and then has to undo it after only 17 minutes, where does that leave a team? Loris Karius’s night in the Champions League final in 2018 is seen as the pinnacle of a bad day at the office for a keeper, where his two mistakes that led to goals for Real Madrid saw Liverpool lose that final, but this show from Kinsky will rival that. While Tottenham were able to get a consolation goal, that doesn’t feel like it will be enough, as in the second leg they’ll still have a three goal defcit to overturn.
They can’t even rotate to get there, considering that the next Premier League match is an away trip to face Liverpool. Essentially, it could get much worse before it gets better. It’s a critical week for Tottenham and one that could shape what the next few years look like if it doesn’t turn around, but what happened on Tuesday in Madrid doesn’t bode well.
